The big news this week, of course, is the election of Pope Francis to succeed Benedict XVI.
Here are a couple of resources for getting to know the new Pope, his background, and the controversies that he will face as leader of the world’s 1.2Billion Catholics:
A brief profile of Pope Francis from the BBC.
A pretty good primer on the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus) from The Daily Beast.
A brief explanation of Liberation Theology from Slate.
An overview of the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church’s new leader from the BBC.
An editorial at Christianity Today about the importance of the new Pope for global Christianity (with a particular emphasis on the evangelical movement).
Another perspective on the importance of the new Pope for global Christianity, this time an article from Patheos about the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople’s decision to attend the Papal installation (first time that’s happened in nearly a thousand years).
What are your thoughts on the new Pope and the challenges he faces? What are your expectations about the future of global Christianity? What else caught your eye around the web this week?
There And (Almost) Back Again 
My thoughts… This is a wait and see moment. There is plenty of information and lots of opinion out there, too much all of a sudden to really sift through at the moment. In short time, I’m sure we’ll see how things play out for the Church, the world, and the new Pope and I’m sure it will all be interesting. For now, I’m content just being a spectator.